The Composer Team

[@JDM_Score]

This channel is beginning to become something of a bible for me! Thank you so much for making such great and detailed videos like this and providing this invaluable information for up and coming film composers!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I’m glad this is helpful! Thanks for watching!

[@bonniecorralmusic]

Agreed! Same here :)

[@KrystofDreamJourney]

Definitely. Same here ! I forward all Anne-Kathrin’s videos to my students and other musicians :-)

[@princegrwl]

WOW...this is possibly the first ever video on youtube (at-least that i know of) that explains in such depth and with such clarity on how a movie scoring studio and the team members operate and who does what before the music finally ends up in the movie/TV Show. This is video is pure gem. I was literally taking notes while watching this video. So invaluable information.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Glad you found this useful! Thanks for watching!

[@antonjohansson8033]

Thank you for information and knowledge you share, I am a sing and songwriter from Sweden and struggle with musikstudios and try to solve what type of effect is and what it does, your videos helps me a lot.

[@gabrielmcpherson5889]

Anne, I’ve just recently discovered your channel and have been devouring all of your videos over the last few weeks. Just wanted to drop a quick note to thank you for all of your remarkably useful, practical , clear-headed content! Also, your strings review convinced me buy Cinematic Studio Strings this week and, having owned literally every other major string library on the planet, I gotta say WOW! Bless you! I simply didn’t know what I didn’t have until I started playing CSS! Incredible recommend . Cheers !

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you so much for you very kind words! I'm so happy you find my content useful and that you love CSS as much as I do! :-)

[@NormanYoungMusic]

Another really fascinating insight into an area I know nothing about (until this video). Thank you.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you for watching!

[@Pax30001]

I really like your sceneries! They're also therapeutic to me, just watching them! Great video! Really informative! Keep up the great work!! :)

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching!

[@speakingmusic]

Anne, great layout of how the process works, the way the team works together. Obviously, being a composer is a lot of being a manager of a lot of people. It's nice to hear the overview so detailed.

[@JohannesRiedlMusic]

This is a super informative Video! It‘s stunning to see how the tree grows from 1 Person to an Orchestra with Engineers, Assistants and Musicians. I‘m also very excited to see your Video with Andres!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you for watching! The team really does explode once you enter orchestral live recording. I think my video with Andres will be one of the most informative ones I’ve done :-) The guy is a wizard!

[@jonathanparham]

very helpful. In media production, I think it's really easy to forget we're the head of a team. Thanks for your clarifications.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching!

[@eds5709]

Thanks for this extended overview. At the moment I have only one team member, being my wife lol. Even tho she's not a musical specialist, the look in her eyes tells me if a piece reaches the right place. I also want to thank you for some fantastic idea's you presented in previous video's. En yes, I often blushed because some simple 'tricks' didn't occur to me earlier. Thank you Anne ;-)

[@jaikumarsivalingam]

Thank you, Anne!

[@sourcefor]

Great stuff as usual!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you!

[@kocho4242]

Wow! This video is so unique and informative. I wasn't aware that the process is so complex, with so many people involved. What surprised me the most is that you have additional writers. I always thought that composer is responsible for every single note in the soundtrack.

[@oldstonefacevimes5822]

There are actually very few composers who straight up don't use additional composers on their scores nowadays, especially on big productions.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

The time constraints on a lot of productions don't really make it possible for the composer to write every note, nor is it necessary. It also creates a great training situation for younger people to work under another composer on professional productions. Most film scores since the beginning of movies have been written by a team under the guidance of the head of the music department, this is not a recent development. I think what is more recent is that composers have to wear more and more hats at the same time while having less time to write, and it is also just now becoming more normal to be open about team members instead of hiding them as ghosts.

[@ozo1489]

Love the scenery you sharing with us- where is the place? Appreciate you sharing industry knowledge with us!!!!!!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Glad you like it! The scenery is around the corner from where I live currently - it's the Venice Canals in Venice, CA.

[@michaeljfriedman]

Thanks so much, this is so informative! I would also love to see more videos on each of the jobs as you mentioned at the end. Especially curious to hear about the career path and how much money these jobs make too.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Already in the works! They take a moment since I’m getting guests from each profession for those videos. They can speak much better about their jobs than I ever could.

[@nimrod7785]

What an excellent video! Thanks Anne. Can I ask in mid-budget films usually, what percentage of music ending up in an orchestra? Is music directly out of DAW good enough to be used in certain parts of the film? I guess is most common to low budget films?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching! It depends on how much session time we can book and what our line-up is. My mockups (and by extension the mockups of my team members) along with a good mixer are technically good enough for the movie but it's not really common to not record everything. I rarely do this unless I really have to due to time constraints - in which case I will cut cues out of the scoring session that are "under dialogue" cues or very small stingers and such. Or cues that truly sound great out of the box so you wouldn't notice a quality difference. But even on lower budget projects, I always make room for sweetening or dedicated soloists unless it's purely a synth-based score.

[@nimrod7785]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer Perfect, makes sense. Thank you for your time answering my question!

[@joeloforii]

Thanks for yet another informative video! what mic do you use in these videos?

[@yoncarlosmedina6705]

Hi Anne-Kathrin! thanks for share all these very usefull information and knowledge! beautiful youtube channel!!!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say!

[@PirateStyle2013]

wow this was so in-depth. I learned a lot but I'm falling in love too. You are so cool.

[@gonzalozubillaga9341]

Very useful!!!! Thank you Anne!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching!

[@FranckAncelinCompositeur]

Too bad, i can't activate the translation on this video. It happens with some of your videos, but not all. Would you be able to fix this Anne-Kathrin?

[@jadonharper1493]

Oh yay the scenic LA intro is back

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Haha, yes, whenever I manage to get my butt out of the studio!

[@FREIMUZIC]

GREAT VIDEO! THANKS!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thank you!

[@ScoringStageEu]

Anne, wo genau ist die Titelsequenz gefilmt? Schaut ja traumhaft aus.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Das sind die Venice Canals in Venice, CA.

[@braunhausmedia]

Have you ever had an experience where the score was done entirely in the box, entirely made of mockups? Or is that more common on TV shows?

[@vancomposer]

The case in most low budget indie films since that women/man-power she is describing there obviously comes with a deserved price tag. I also like to compare it to software coding, there is just so much code one person can write in a certain amount of time and therefore in many movies the "density" and mass of sound can only be achieved by a team. Certainly a dream to one day MAYBE have the chance to work on such a level. Till then enjoying live with what I have. 🙋‍♂️

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I rarely do anything solely in the box, even on my short films or low budget productions. There's always room for sweetening or a dedicated soloist. It's not necessarily more common on TV shows. It really depends on budget and also the type of score. But if it's not entirely a synth score I will always make room for a handful of players at least.

[@BinarySounds]

Are there any productions that don't record live and just use the sampled mockups?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Yes, there are. Those would usually be ultra low budget productions or also any production that is 100% based on synthesizers. Most composers will however always find a way to add some amount of live instruments, even if it's just soloists.

[@BinarySounds]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer thanks so much for such a quick response. I owe you a coffee.

[@borregof]

I love your content!

[@jorgestramusic]

Great video!... You talk about many things nobody tells you, the only problem I see is that as I'm listening I get distracted by your beautiful eyes!

[@LuiDeca]

can you make a video on union rules? that subject is fairly obscure for people outside this area.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I'm not really an expert on that since it's part of the contractor's job, not mine. Plus every country or region has its own rules so there is no global consensus on this. You should be able to find information on the union websites though, if you're looking for specific rules in a specific region.

[@MichelSchallenberg]

I heard that John Williams likes to stick to more or less the same musicians for each project, and while that sounds like it makes sense it also sounds unrealistic from the management perspective. Is that something you ever tried to do as well, establishing a relationship with a fixed set of players over many years? Is that even done at all?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

No, that is not common. I wouldn't take anything JW does as the norm or an example because he gets very special treatment in many areas of score production that no one else gets. The composer can request specific soloists, concertmasters, or other key people they want, but not the whole orchestra. It's also rare that a composer would even know enough session musicians in one location that would all be available at the same time to make this happen. Again, for JW people make it happen but that's a very unique scenario.

[@kennywoodmusic]

Awesome overview, Anne! When you do the copyist video, can you talk about librarian duties too? 😀 I feel like in less than a year from now, you’re gonna render all the university scoring programs obsolete. We are a lucky group of subscribers!

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I sure will include librarians! :-)

[@altermoremusic]

I need this info. So big thnx for it! Can i be like remote assistant for you? 🤔

[@bonniecorralmusic]

Do you prefer to conduct at the record session?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Yes, I prefer to conduct myself, though I don’t always get to do that.

[@oldstonefacevimes5822]

How do you calculate the exact percentages of cuesheet credit for your additional composers? From what I have seen with a lot of composers is that they'll be blanket credited with something like 15-25% on all cues that they wrote on, which strikes me as odd.

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

We make a contract upfront that states how much it will be per cue that they write. 25% is a very common number if the music is based on the lead composer’s themes. Higher numbers are common if the additional writer composes something from scratch.

[@retttte7179]

Hello very instructive, thank you. The job of music composer seem to be very strict, do you have always a lots of fun to score film or is there often a lots of tension, stress...not with musical ideas but with directors and the film staff ?

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

Thanks for watching. That's a very generalized question. Of course it always depends on the people you work with. It's always going to be stressful and there will always be moments of tension but with the right people, you still get to have a fun experience together. I don't really interact with any film staff outside of the music department (which I mostly choose myself), other than the director and producers, maybe on occasion the editor.

[@retttte7179]

@@AnneKathrinDernComposer You're right, luxury in this job is to choose people to work with...but you must be established to do this.Thank you for this professionnal sharing !

[@baldwyntin608]

Thank you! What do you think about working with a mouse with multiple buttons?

[@TonyThomas10000]

You should really right a book about all of this...

[@frankhainke7442]

Oh Mann, wenn man das hört möchte man ja gar kein Filmkomponist sein. Ich dachte man gibt einfach seine Partitur ab und das war's. Aber offenbar fängt es da erst an. Kompliment: Du must alles bewältigen.

[@indikasampath4832]

You just gave away a $ 1000worth berkeley course free....❤️

[@AnneKathrinDernComposer]

I do what I can :-)

[@anonimoanonimo1296]

cute necklace

[@GianCarloFeoli]

LOL what team?, here that does not exist.

[@honigdachs.]

Very interesting insight! Sounds terrible. 😄

[@joeloforii]

Thanks for yet another informative video! what mic do you use in these videos?